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In the following Q&A, you can catch up with Dion and enjoy some great memories from the 50’s music scene.

The Wall Street Journal: You came up when rock ‘n’ roll was still dawning on America, after Elvis and before the Beatles. You rocked the “The Ed Sullivan Show” in a tuxedo. Did you feel torn between two worlds?

Dion: I was the first rock ‘n’ roller signed by Columbia Records. Aretha Franklin was starting there at the same time. They were giving Aretha and me Al Jolson tunes; I was singing “Mammy;” she did “Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody”—they didn’t know what we were about. From the beginning, before I recruited the Belmonts to record with me, [managers] told me to put the guitar down—leaders of groups don’t play guitar. They wanted to give me a nightclub act and book me in the Copacabana. They wanted to put me with corny backing singers—Broadway-trained guys who were great singing “Oklahoma!” but didn’t know from rock and roll. The show business era was — “Hey! How’s everybody doin’ tonight? Hope everybody’s fine!” The rock and roll attitude was —we don’t care how you feel about it; we’re taking you on a trip. “Let’s go!”

[The Wall Street Journal] Your new album, “Tank Full of Blues,” showcases your love for that music. When did you start filling your tank?

Way back at Columbia, John Hammond [the legendary producer who helped launch the careers of greats from Billie Holiday and Count Basie to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen] pulled me into his office. He had this big grin and said “Dion, you seem to have a flair for the blues.” I left there with an armload of albums by Furry Lewis, Leroy Carr, Fred McDowell—and Robert Johnson. I never wanted to imitate those guys like Mick Jagger did—”I followed her to da stay-shun.” I thought if I did that I’d get killed at the Brooklyn Fox where Howlin’ Wolf and all the greats used to play. I met Bo Diddley at the Fox. He scowled at me and said “Where’d you learn to play blues like that?” I thought he was going to kill me. I said, “I listen to records.” He said, “Me, too.”

Finish reading the Q&A with Dion by clicking here.

After discussing with Debbie, Dion’s mention of Muddy Waters, she proudly noted, “I never saw Dion in person, but I did get to see Muddy, Chuck, Bo, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee.” Great remembrances for sure. Enjoy!

Warm regards,

Dick

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Paris Market from David Lebovitz on Vimeo.

Bon appétit,

Dick

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Take a few minutes and jot down a checklist of personal vulnerabilities. I don’t think you will like the look of your list. To downplay the threat of a massive infrastructure breakdown flies in the face of all I have read. It is time to get started on your full-scale family survival program. What is the downside of being prepared? As a helpful rule of thumb, I would target 1% of your liquid net worth to survival planning. If this sounds like big money to you, my guess is that you need to focus on your vulnerability a little more.

On that happy New Year’s note, here are five of my favorite survival items. You can add all to your survival program quickly and for light money. (1) Fresh Water. If you find any, how do you easily transport the water home? The simple answer is with the Reliance Hydroller (bought mine through Amazon) (2) Preserving Water. Water Preserver Concentrate is registered by federal and state EPA (also ordered at Amazon) (3) Self Defense. You don’t want to be without a shotgun (I have Mossbergs), and low-recoil ammo is a must. I buy Federal low recoil 00 buck online from Cabela’s. (4) Morning Joe. If you need your daily coffee jolt, you will soon have the shakes if you cannot fire up your electric coffee pot. Deb and I own a number of French presses. Water from your well, for example, can be boiled on a Webber or Green Egg. We love our French press. (5) Personal Protection. Now for the piece de resistance, the Travel Wrench. Yup, it looks like a plastic bike wrench and is clearly labeled Travel Wrench, but the TW is a first rate self-defense weapon. Mine is always in my side pocket. A single, well-aimed crack with the TW and a problematic attacker is out of the game (Check out the Travel Wrench here). Once again I bought these through my Amazon one click shopping account.

There you have it—five cheap-to-buy, easy-to-use and easy-to-order survival preparation must haves. Make a New Year’s resolution to get yourself on track with survival preparation. I am going to greatly expand on this theme in my monthly financial/personal security reports. You will be able to click here often and download my most recent updates. Coming to you soon: my next five survival favorites. You will want all! So Happy New Year to you all. Make it a good one.

Warm regards,

Dick

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The pictures they took are spectacular because the animals are in the comfort of their own home, not a zoo. Actually, they’re the ones that are free, while you feel as if you’re the exhibit in the zoo. And you see who’s next in the circle of life.

One song in the slide show was “Africa” by Toto. The most stirring part of the song to me is the drumming by the late Jeff Porcaro. He was a drummer’s drummer, with a genuine feel for a song. He plays the back end of the pocket here, almost delayed beyond the beat. It’s a rich sound, simple yet sophisticated, not easily duplicated.

You can go back in time by booking your trip to Africa while listening to the song through my favored 180 gram high-def vinyl, McIntosh preamp-amplifier, and Klipsch speakers.

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It is a reflection of the ingredients labeled on packaged food items and the industrial/feedlot meat, milk and egg offerings. Most of the natural food value has been bled out, replaced by hormone- and antibiotic-loaded offerings or loaded with unhealthy high-fructose corn syrup and cancer-inducing polyunsaturated fats like corn, soy and sunflower oils. Here, of course, I am not referring to beneficial olive oil or high heat oils offered from, by example, Spectrum.

In the past, I have written that the two most important words in food are “shop local.” Debbie and I achieve this goal by patronizing our local farmers markets and shopping at our local natural foods and specialized locally owned markets. Doing so allows us to stick with grass fed meat, wild fish, real free-range chicken and eggs, and local organic fruits and vegetables. As a supplement to our regular “shop local” diet, we buy grass fed meat from U.S. Wellness in the Midwest and organic herbs and cultured whole-food vitamins & minerals from New Chapter. You can find New Chapter’s great whole food products at your local natural foods market or, for your convenience, at amazon.com. New Chapter is a great health find and allows you to maintain a proper health regimen, when on the road, as we are so often. You are not likely to miss New Chapter’s distinctive purple boxes.

Warm Regards,

Dick

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Dr. Lundell rips the drug company case for statins apart, writing:

The very best statistical manipulation shows that one must treat at least 10 people for several years for 1 to have possible benefit. I’ll bet that when your doctor told you to take statins you were not told that under the most favorable statistical slant on the data there is only 1 chance in 10 that you will benefit.

The much publicized JUPITER study which led the FDA to approve Crestor® for people with normal cholesterol showed that treating 100 people for 3 years with Crestor® “may” have prevented one heart attack.

Yet the approval was granted and millions of people were exposed to the risks of statins with no possible benefit except to the maker of Crestor®. Do you think the process is pure and clean and free of improper influence?

Just as a point of reference, if I had treated 100 people with the correct antibiotic for an infection 99 would have been cured.

Lundell says the facts are this:

1.) Statins have not been proven to help any woman of any age!

2.) Statins have not been proven to help anyone over the age of 65!

3.) The only group of patients who may, and I emphasize “may” get any benefit, are middle aged men who have had a previous heart attack.

Lundell points to low-grade inflammation as the cause for heart attacks, writing “without inflammation cholesterol would never accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause plaque with its eventual consequence of heart attack and death.”

Read more of Lundell’s article, The Statin Scam by clicking here.

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